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(No Model.)

DEVICE FOR AGTUATING STREET OR STATION INDICATORS. No. 389,122 PatentedSept. 4, 1888.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICEO WILLIAM A. TURNER, OF SAN FRANCISCO,CALIFORNIA.

DEVICE FOR ACTUATING STREET OR STATION lNDlCATORS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 389,122, datedSeptember 4, 1888.

(No model.)

To aZZ w/wm it may concern.-

Be it known that I, \VILLIAM A. TURNER, of the city and county of SanFrancisco, State of California, haveinvented an Improvement in a Devicefor Actuating Street or Station Indicators; and I hereby declare thefollowing to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

My invention relates to a mechanism for actuating street or stationindicators. Its object is to prevent the actuation of the indicator byobstructions which may be accident ally present on the track.

It consists of two or more detached trippingblocks or obstructions fixedupon the roadway at each point where it is desired to operate theindicators, and a similar number of levers fulcrumed upon the car and soplaced as to simultaneously engage the trippingblocks, and, inconnection with this, of a mechanism which can only be operated by thejoint action of the two levers so as to release the indicators at theproper points.

Referring to the accompanying drawing for a more complete explanation ofmy invention, the figure is a view of the railway-track with the cartraveling thereon, showing the levers, tripping-bloclr,and theelectromagnetic mechanism for actuating the street or stationindicators.

In the appliances which have heretofore been used for operatingstation-indicators a single obstruction serves to operate a lever orwheel attached to the car whenever the car passes the point where thetripping-block is fixed, and through this lever the indicator card ordevice is exhibited. The objection to this form of apparatus isprincipally that it is liable to be actuated by obstacles accidentallyplaced upon the track so as to give a false record. In order to overcomethis defect, I have arranged the levers in sets of two or more, and thetripping-blocks or obstructions are correspondingly fixed in pairs orseries at the proper intervals upon the roadway,so that the levers shallbe actuated simultaneously, and if less than all the levers are movedthen the indicator will not be affected thereby.

In the present drawing I have shown only so much of the railway-car andthe connected devices as to illustrate my invention, the parts beingsomewhat disproportionate for the pun pose of showing clearly theoperative mechanism. I have also shown the device as applied to anindicator actuated by an electric current; but it will be manifest thatthe series of levers may operate the indicator by other mechanism aswell.

In the drawing, A is the railway-track or the roadway upon which thewheels to of a railway-car are adapted to travel, and B represents thecar supported upon the axles of the wheels. Permanent blocks orobstructions 0 O are fixed upon the roadway in any suitable orwell-known manner with relation to the tracks and the traveling car orparts thereof. These obstructions, of which I have shown two in thepresent case, are fixed at the same distance apart as the levers D D,which are fulcrumed upon the car so that theirlower ends extend to apoint so near the ground that when the car passes any two of thetrippingblocks the points of the lever will engage the two blockssimultaneously and thus be turned about their fulcrums.

E E are posts or stops fixed to the body of the car adjacent to theupper ends of the lovers D, with which they are connected by springs orany suitable elastic connection, by which communication may bemaintained between the levers and the posts while the lovers may bemoving, or at varying distances from the posts. One of the posts, E, isconnected by a wire, K, with the battery I fixed at a suit able point onthe car, and the other post, E, is connected by a 'wire, L, with theelectro magnet N, by which the indicating cards or plates are operatedand exposed. In the present case these indicating-plates It aresuspended upon the shaft T, being turned up above it and held inposition by a pawl-lever, U, which has an armature, V, fixed to it, sothat when the current of electricity passes through the electromaguet Nit will raise the pawl-lever and allow one of the indicatorplates toswing downward around the suspending hinges and expose the name of thestreet or station, this construction being fully ex plained by a formerapplication for patent filed by me December 8,1887, Serial No. 257,281.

The electroniagnet N is connected with the battery P by the wire llI.Upon each of the swinging levers D is a plate of metal, as shown at Xand Y, and the plates F F are fixed with relation to the levers, so thatwhen the two levers are caused to swing by coming in contact with thetripping-blocks 0 they will bring the two plates X and Y simultaneouslyinto contact with the plates F F. These plates F F are united by thewire H; and by this construction, when both contacts are formed, acircuit is completed through the wires K, L, and M and theelectro-magnet, which causes the latter to disengage one of theindicating-plates, as before described. Whenever only one of the leversD should strike an obstruction, which would move it and form the contactbetween its plate and the corresponding plate F, no circuit would becompleted and no action of the indicator would take place.

It will be manifest that the lower part of the lever-arms D may behinged or jointed in such a way that no movement of the levers wouldtake place if the car were moved in an opposite direction; and it willalso be obvious that any number of the levers with correspondingmechanism might be employed, if found desirable.

Although in the drawing I have shown only the parts connected so as tobe operative without reference to proportional sizes or the ab soluterelative positions of these parts upon the car, it is for the purpose ofsimplifying the drawing; and it will be manifest that any one skilled inthe art can easily place the parts at any desired points of the carwithout further illustration.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is-

A street or station indicator fixed upon a car, and the means forpreventing the actuation of said indicator by accident, consisting of aplurality of levers fulcrumed upon the car, in combination withcorresponding obstructions fixed upon the line of the track and 1 havingspaces between them equal to the dis tance between the ends of thelevers, whereby the levers will be actuated simultaneously,substantially as herein described.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

WILLIAM A. TURNER.

fit 11 csses:

GEO. H. STRONG, S. H. NoURsE.

